The Dirt - 1st Half Of The Valentine’s Day Bowl Update

MorningStar

— 1st half —of the "Valentine’s Day Bowl" Update

Well, Super Bowl 51 will be played this Sunday, and our own Valentine’s Day Bowl is just wrapping up the first half.

A:Are you winning?

Barely. But we are in the lead going into the 2nd half. Our actual harvest to forecasted demand has been pretty spot-on. However, this season demand turned out to be greater than forecast, and with all the rain we had the last couple of weeks our safety stock was wiped out. This means that we can not take additional orders which is a missed scoring opportunity for everyone.

Q:How’s your team holding up?

A:We talked about the Support Team last week, so this week I will highlight our Operations, Production, Shipping and Logistics Teams. At these high output times I am once again reminded that great teams are a joy to watch; and that I am truly lucky to be part of such a great team.

Q:Who do you want to talk about first?

A:Gabe Gill and his production team; our "Defense".Good defense has good anticipation of what the offense is going to do next. When it comes to the Dos Gringos’ Gridiron, Gabe and his team know how to schedule and plan for the unexpected play. Some days our harvest does not come in exactly as planned, so we need to be constantly adjusting the Assembly and Packing Team’s playbooks. They’ve already had a couple good interceptions and fumble recoveries.

Defense; A.K.A Operation Manager, Gabe Gill.

Also, Edgar Montiel and his Receiving Team. Our Defensive Line! Edgar and his team will receive, process and control for quality over 7 million stems of flowers this holiday. Edgar and the Receiving Team come in to work at 4:45a.m., and do not leave until the last truck has arrived from the farm.They are always on the defensive line, trying not to let any bad flowers slip through the cracks.

Defensive Line; A.K.A Edgar Montiel and his Receiving Team.

Q:Who’s on offense, putting points on the board for Team Gringo?

A: Raul Mesa and his Kitting and Assembly Team. Our Offensive Line!Raul and his team are the best blockers in the business. It’s their job to get all of our orders graded, assembled, packed and to our Shipping Team, on time and with zero defects, no matter what, and trust me, during this super busy time that means late nights, weekends, and long days to get everything ready. Our fresh flowers and bouquets leave here within 48 hours of harvest and in perfect condition!

Offensive Line; A.K.A Raul Mesa and the Kitting and Assembly Team.

Additionally, we must mention Manny Martinez and Juan Faris.The Shipping Team Running Backs!Manny, Juan and their team will palletize and sort close to 100,000 cases of flowers this holiday. Oh yeah, and their team will also load over 100 full semi-trailer tractor loads and many more partial LTL loads. Just as football players must know their playbook, and stick to it, our Shipping Team knows their playbook and can be trusted to carry out their plays to perfection. The Shipping Team is the team who run the ball down the field 5 yards at a time and put us in a position to score.

Ball delivery experts Victor Cardona and Mike Vargas,our Logistics Team and Receivers, respectfully.These are the teams that have to punch the ball in the end zone, i.e., your delivery dock! Fifty-three years ago, Minnesota Vikings Jim Marshall recovered a fumble and ran 66 yards the wrong way to his own end zone! This error is talked about still. We can’t afford this type of error at this critical time and we too, would all be running trucks in the wrong direction if it were not for the experts managing the hundreds of loads that will be shipping out over the next two weeks. Our Logistics Team works 24 x 7 to make sure your boxes are always headed in the right direction and on track for an on time delivery. They get it in the end zone 99.8% of the time that we’re in the red zone. Not too shabby.

Receivers; A.K.A Victor Cardona and Mike Vargas, our Logistics Team.

Val and Gladys Production Support, Ra! Ra! Ra!

QC, rounding out the effort!

The scrim; production madness!

So, there you have it folks, many of us at Dos Gringos will be DVR’ing the game on Sunday, as the teams above run for their respective touchdowns on the production floor— all so your flowers score big, and you win your own Valentine’s Day Bowl!Hip-Hip-Hooray!